When Curiosity Meets Fear: Horse and Dog’s Interaction with a Tortoise

A horse and a dog appear to be inspecting a tortoise. An exotic looking animal in an unusual location of course forced the curiosity of the horse and the dog to awaken.

As this horse is in its paddock, any unusual object which it hasn’t interacted before, as in the situation – the tortoise, demands an examination at any cost even if it looks similar to a harmless rock.

Because horses from their own nature are very cautious animals and always need to be up-to-date about their surroundings. Horses are such animals which can become targets of predators when being exposed in the outdoors, so for this reason they are always observing the environment and keeping an eye on other horses if being in a herd. For the dog, desire to explore comes for safe keeping purposes. It had to inspect the crustacean to see if it is dangerous and needed to fight with, or a living being with the perspective of becoming a friend.

As the horse and dog start sniffing and touching the tortoise, it makes a sudden move with its whole body in order to protect himself. This awkward situation shows that the horse and dog were also unfamiliar objects for the tortoise so it started defending himself. As horses become very sensitive in tense situations, they become scared of any sharp movements or sounds. The horse rears and jumps away from the tortoise. Then, he comes towards the tortoise once again. The seconf time is visible that the tortoise reacts very fast and even touches the horse’s muzzle. The horse’s reaction is hilarious! It spooks so hardly that it starts waving with its front hooves at the tortoise and even stamps on the tortoise’s shell. Don’t worry! Tortoises’ shells are strong enough to withstand thousands of pounds of pressure.

After this epic encounter, the horse and dog speed off away from the tortoise. Without a second thought, the horse starts galloping away at full speed and bucking, in case the tortoise is running after him. The dog also got scared and was running together with horse and got in between its legs. The dog got out of the horse’s way but the frightened horse left the place running and bucking.